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Public buildings flaunting disability regulations not to be certified: M.C.D. - Volume 3 Issue 13: Disability News and Information Service for India

Public buildings flaunting disability regulations not to be certified: M.C.D.

DNIS News Network - The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (M.C.D.) may be getting its act together in the wake of severe criticism
for failing to address the issue of disability access in its draft plan for new building byelaws released a few weeks ago.

M.C.D. Commissioner Rakesh Mehta has said that the civic body would no longer issue
completion certificates to public buildings that do not conform to disability
regulations.

‘‘The mandatory disabilities provision will be implemented strictly in all public
buildings. Only private homes will be exempt from this provision. So far we have
decided that only buildings that will be constructed from now on will be brought
under the purview of this law,’’ he was quoted in the media as saying.

The task force working on the revised building byelaws has included a section specifying
the access codes and standards. It has also been reported that developers of
buildings that are not private homes would now have to submit accessibility
report that will be submitted along with the application for a building permit.

The format of the accessibility report will be determined by Office of the Chief Commissioner
for Disabilities. The accessibility reports of all buildings will also be
‘web-enabled’ which would enable M.C.D. officials to check the conformity of the
new buildings to the bylaws.

In a letter to the M.C.D, National Centre for Promotion of
Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) had made recommendations for making the new
byelaws sensitive to accessibility needs of persons with disability, as the M.C.D. draft for changes in building
byelaws had skirted the issue of access for persons with disability.